At first I thought this was just an example of Itanglese/Anglitaliano, but it seems this word is known in a few European languages and there are even English speakers who use it in this sense. It has also taken over as the main meaning on Wikipedia.

It seems to be one of those buzzwords favoured by ‘experts’ in some new, often self-invented, field. Not to suggest that they might not be doing something useful, but the obsession with creating your own niche term is a rather sad and predictable.

It seems to have been taken over from the biological sense where groups of animals take part in collective aggression, usually against a predator, but other species can be the target too. Birds are well known for this behaviour: e.g. both Indian mynas and (native) noisy miners will drive smaller birds out of nesting hollows.

So now you know. If you’re driven out of your workplace by a group effort of harassment (like Checco in Quo Vado?) it’s not bullying, it’s mobbing…apparently.

Sometimes the French are least comprehensible when they’re using English words.

Plastic bags are soon to be outlawed (at least in supermarkets) so the news did a piece on the alternatives: paper, cloth & biodegradable potato-plastic. At first I thought they were saying that paper bags were to be used for purchases en dry. Dry goods perhaps? No, ‘dry’ is not a word they’d borrow. Actually what they said was…

“… these bags will be used for drive-through purchases.”“… it’s important* for a drive-through store as… for a fast food (outlet).”

What I think they’re referring to (and the Carrefour logo on the bags was a big give-away) is a newish service in France where you order your groceries online then drive through and have their flunkies load them into your car.